Winners and losers from Cavs Game 1 victory over Heat

Taking a look at what went right and wrong in Cleveland’s 121-100 victory.

It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to outlast the Miami Heat 121-100 in Game 1.

Winners

Playoff Ty Jerome

Jerome didn’t disappoint in the first playoff outing of his career. He was able to consistently get to his floater, found ways to get to the line, and was unafraid to take the pull-up three when given some space. In short, all of the best things about Jerome’s magical regular season carried over to the playoffs.

Cleveland’s bench was bad all evening. Their lack of ability to generate any offense from their reserves was as tight as it was. Fortunately, Jerome was there to bail them out with his 16 fourth-quarter points.

Jerome stepped up when the Cavs desperately needed him to.

Darius Garland’s bounce-back

It’s easy to forget how bad Garland’s playoffs were last season. He lacked confidence and was mostly ineffective as a scorer inside the three-point arc.

This version of Garland was the complete opposite of what we saw last year. He was Cleveland’s best player through stretches on Sunday, kept the offense on schedule, and competed against a Miami offense that wanted to attack him on the other end.

Head coach Kenny Atkinson has talked about wanting Garland to show the maturity of a “28-year-old” in the playoffs. We saw what that looked like as he was the quarterback of the offense, turned it over only twice, and was able to find his shot when given any kind of daylight. This included hitting two dagger threes to put the game away late in the fourth.

Miami’s three-point shooting

When people talk about three-point variance, this is what they mean. Miami was a middle-of-the-road outside shooting team during the regular season (36.7%). That didn’t matter on Sunday evening as they went 13-31 (41.9%) from three.

That hot shooting kept Miami’s offense afloat.

Donovan Mitchell’s explosiveness

There were some questions about whether Mitchell’s ankle would be fully healed after twisting it two weeks ago in a loss to the Sacramento Kings. Those fears have been quieted as he consistently was able to get to the rim and was an active defender with four steals.

The Cavs need Mitchell’s scoring in the playoffs. That’s made easier when he’s able to consistently get to the basket like he was able to do tonight.

Cavs winning the possession game

Kenny Atkinson has spoken at length about the need to win the possession game leading up to the playoffs. He reemphasized that again Saturday after practice.

“I think the possession game becomes super important [in the playoffs],” Atkinson said yesterday. “It’s almost like the NFL. You can’t turn it over. ... There’s a smaller amount of possessions, teams are going to miss more. You got to take care of it. ... We’re playing on the margins here. So I think our guys understand that.”

Game 1 was proof that they did.

The Cavs did a great job of grabbing their misses, taking care of the ball, and forcing Miami turnovers. This allowed them to win the turnover battle by seven and the offensive rebounding battle 14-11.

These small things can go a long way in deciding tight games.

Losers

Cavs defensive rebounding

We’ve been talking about defensive rebounding for now three straight playoffs. At this point, it’s fair to say that this will always be an issue for this group.

While the Cavs won the possession battle overall, they still struggled to end defensive possessions. Miami retrieved 32.6% of their missed shots (73rd percentile), which translated to 17 second-chance points.

Atkinson seemed at a loss for words when talking about the rebounding after the win.

“We got to be a better defensive rebounding team,” Atkinson said. “We’re searching, we’re pushing.”

The Cavs may be able to get away with this kind of defensive rebounding performance against a team they have a significant talent advantage like they have against the Heat. That won’t carry over to a series where that talent advantage isn’t as great.

Evan Mobley

It’s been said throughout the season and in the lead-up to the playoffs that the team will only go as far as Mobley takes them. The Cavs are fortunate that wasn’t the case on Sunday, as he was mostly a non-factor on the offensive end and as a rebounder. He finished with just nine points and seven rebounds. All of those boards came in the second half.

Bam Adebayo is a tough matchup. He’s a physically imposing big that can give Mobley problems. Still, you hope to see him bounce back with a better showing in Game 2.

Miami’s zone

The Cavs have been trying to mimic Erik Spoelstra’s zone in Miami all season. It’s no surprise that the Cavs were ready for it when they sporadically went to it in the fourth quarter.

This is something to keep an eye on as the series progresses. We’ll see if Spoelstra throws some different wrinkles into it next game.

De’Andre Hunter

Hunter was brought in to take the top off the defense with his shooting and be a versatile defender who could guard one through four. Neither of those things was on display as he not only couldn’t hit a three, but he didn’t even attempt one.

We’ve seen enough from Hunter this season not to be too concerned long-term about this. But this was a poor showing from someone who was brought in to sure up their playoff rotation.

Cleveland’s depth

Atkinson insisted pregame that he wanted to play his normal 10-man rotation. That didn’t exactly go well. Isaac Okoro hit the side of the backboard in his first three-point attempt, Dean Wade was a non-factor in the few minutes he played, and Hunter had maybe his worst game in a Cavaliers uniform.

Wade was cut out of the rotation in the second half. And while Okoro did see the floor in the fourth quarter, those minutes seemed like they were more of a byproduct of how poorly Hunter was playing than anything in particular that Okoro was providing.

The Cavs, along with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics, have been winning with depth all season. There was a question as to how much that could translate to the playoffs, considering how reliant most teams are on the top-end talent to carry them through the playoffs.

Those questions are still there for the Cavs after their poor bench showing.